HiDeeHo

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

WITHDRAWAL

Okay, seriously now. Really. I'm done for a while.

Although, I'm just finishing up Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and I've just found out the Templars who run Google (and thus Blogger) want me to keep posting mindless rambling crap because they're encoding a message in it, for those who can read it.

What happens when you defy the wishes of the Templars? We'll see.

(attaching cosmic significance to everything is a sign you're going around the bend...it won't be long before I start wearing aluminum foil on my head and talking to trees...oh wait, I do the latter already...)

EDIT: I also decided to clean house regarding the clutter. That revolving moon and Subgenius stuff was getting on my nerve. What with Mars being so close, I'm feeling rash and angry, and so have directed my energy into...cleaning. Cleaned closets, and cleaned blog. So there.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

ERGONOSTALGIA

Okay, so, it's a hazy-yet-breezy late August morning. I'm sitting in front of my office window with a fan blowing straight at me, typing Infectious Disease Clinic reports, and lamenting the fact that I don't have a job where I can be outside.

It occurred to me that a few years ago, in 1995 to be precise, I had a job very similar to the job I have now - transcribing focus group recordings, not medical reports - with this company: New South Research. I was kind of an office gofer - first conducting phone surveys, then being promoted up to data processing, then focus group transcription and general assistant. I was an immature brat of a 20-year-old at the time I worked there, and quit rather without notice in the throes of unhappy relationship and depression. For that, I so belatedly apologize, to all of you who might still be associated with the company.

Let me see...Louis (the elder, facilitator and co-honcho), Amy (his daughter and an analyst in her own right), Jim (the current head honcho), Russell and Max (market research analysts with whom I primarily dealt who may or may not still be there)...okay. Sorry. Sorry I tried to skew results and didn't quite get the focus groups' words verbatim. Sorry I fell asleep in the computer room while entering comments from a hospital survey. Sorry I had Dave (my boyfriend at the time) get involved in the technical side at all.

Not sorry I quit though. Like I said on FMAS, 'the customer' can go fuck themselves. That's not the optimal attitude to have for someone working at a market research company. Getting inside the minds of most Alabamians is like crawling into a dusty storage space, full of old NASCAR memorabilia, football paraphenalia, liquor bottles and the odd embarrassing Klan hood.

I knew Alabamians better than I wanted to for the duration of my employment there. If anyone would like to defend the residents of suburban, urban and rural Alabama...well, that's why I have comments. Go ahead.

Anyway...the upshot is this: While transcribing medical reports in my home office, I can get the sun and fresh air that has been lacking in so many other of my jobs. Like the one at NSR. Hallelujah.